Unidade 4

What is the importance of working with text genres in the EFL classroom?
In this unit, you will learn how to select text genres for EFL students.

How do we define genre? This classic question has been debated for decades and
even centuries. In recorded history, the genres of e.g. novels, letters and newspaper
articles have been well known among experts as well as lay people. However, the
concept of genre could easily be considered much more complex. Not only the above
“common” pieces of text have their own genre. Basically, any kind of text would
belong to some genre. During the last few years, many linguistic experts have been
doing extensive research within the area of genre analysis of non-fictional texts. This
research has brought useful results and thus, the concept of genre has become much
broader than it used to be a century or two ago.
(Jensen, 2005)

Goals
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
Develop activities using different text genres to develop writing activities in the
EFL classroom.

Program
This unit is divided in:
Lesson 1 – Text Genres and the English as a Foreign Language
Lesson 2 – Genres and the Contextualization of the English as a Foreign Language
classroom
Lesson 3 – Text genre and its applicability to the English as a Foreign Language
Writing Classroom
Do you know that using text genres we introduce different communicative purpose?
Text Genres and the English as a Foreign Language
Can text genres be used to teach writing to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students?

Recent years have seen increased attention being given to the notion of genre in
the field of education. This has been especially true in the case of English as a
Foreign Language. In Brazil, for example, genre-based approaches have been
applied in academic writing, adult foreign language literacy development, and
foreign language development in schools.

But how can we define text genres? And what is the difference between type of texts and
text genres?

The notion of text type is an abstract category designed to characterize the main
structure of a particular text. The following are considered text types: narrative,
descriptive and argumentative. Text genre, on the other hand, refers to recurring
patterns of everyday, academic and literary texts that occur within a particular
culture. A text genre is cultural-based as it recognizes the intended audience and
observes how the forms of discourse are used in a given context.

All of text genres have particular characteristics and functions that distinguish them
from one another. However, it is necessary that readers know which category of text
genre they are reading in order to understand the message it conveys, as they may
have certain expectations prior to the reading concerned.

Swales (1990, p. 58) defined genre as “a class of communicative events, the members
of which share some set of communicative purposes.” Hyland (2008, 543) defines
genre as “a term for grouping texts together, representing how writers typically use
language to respond to recurring situations”; he notes that genre “is based on the
idea that members of a community usually have little difficulty in recognizing
similarities in the texts they use frequently and are able to draw on their repeated
experiences with such texts to read, understand and perhaps write them relatively
easily.

Now that you know what a text genre is, can you see yourself using it to teach EFL?

Let us talk about how important it is to address text gender in EFL classrooms

First of all, it is important to remember that the use of text genres in EFL classrooms
is a requirement made by the Brazilian Ministry of Education. Second, it is believed
that in using textual genres, English teachers attend to the needs of the
contemporary Brazilian society. Using a variety of text genres might address the
social and educational function of writing in English classrooms.

According to the National Curriculum Parameters, the goal of all genre-based work
is,

…to show the necessity that the study of language uses and the forms
language expresses itself are based upon reflection on the relationship
among production, reception and circulation of meanings in different social
spheres and in different forms of interaction
Using text genres in the classroom might give students the opportunity to identify
generic structures and associate them to the type of text they are working with. In
this way, students can explore the characteristic features of particular genres, and the
sorts of variation that occur within them. They can then be directed to create their
own texts, drawing on the language and discourse patterns identified in the texts
they have already examined.
The notions of genre and text type within the context of the language learning
classroom should be exploited in the classroom. The distinction between genre and
text type is important and useful for language teaching and learning.
Text genres that can be used with children and young adults
It would be impossible to number all the textual genres we have available around us.
The goal here is not to number them but to reflect about each ones would best fit the
interest of our students. Below we will list some text genres that can be used in our
classrooms:

Comics.
E-mails.
Letters.
Songs.
Invitations of any kind.
Poems.
Advertisements.
Movies.

Genres and the Contextualization of the English as a Foreign Language

classroom
As pre-service teachers, have you ever thought about the importance of classroom
contexts for the development of lessons and materials?

A lesson without context is like a textbook without an introduction, a movie without a

trailer, a book without an ending and so forth. If we, as English teachers, do not pay
attention to the context, students might be not motivated to learn what is being
taught.

Classrooms are fundamentally social contexts and carefully observing how

knowledge is constructed in a given setting might give us, English teacher, the
opportunity to develop materials that will help our students learn a language more
effectively.

But, how can we make our classrooms more contextualized with the all the diversity
we have around? Can we motivate our students using text genres that are part of the
world they live in?

Text genres and the classroom: motivating students to learn English

Using text genres in the classroom can contribute for us to develop more
contextualized materials. In addition to this, contextualized text genres can motivate
students to learn English. It has been argued by many authors that text genres can
help students become more motivated to learn English what will consequently affect
their cognitive process positively.

But you might be asking yourself: How can we motivate students to write in English using
text genres?

When we use text genres that are part of the learner´s world, we have more chance
to motivate them to construct their own knowledge. Children become literate being
exposed to a variety of text genres. This process of language acquisition happens in
and outside of the school. Regarding foreign language learning, this is not different.
The internet, for instance, has brought new text genres that became part of our
student’s world.

Text genre and its applicability to the English as a Foreign Language Writing
Classroom

How can we make use of text genres to teach English writing to Middle and High School
students?

One of the first premises that needs to be considered is the context where our
students are placed. With this in mind, we will have more chance to choose text
genres that are part of their social worlds. We need to be careful selecting text
genres because any mistake we make can greatly affect the cognitive process of our
students.

Using text genres in the English as a Foreign Language classroom is of great

significance to the teaching of writing but there are some considerations we need
to make before selecting them. Below we will describe briefly what needs to be
considered before choosing text genres to use in our classrooms.

Have you ever thought about what to take into consideration before teaching writing to
middle and high school students using text genres?

Here are some important things you need to consider:

Context
Remember to consider the social context your student is placed. Observing social
contexts is important for the selection of text genres because it is through our social
relations with others that we construct knowledge.

Age
It is important that we observe our students ‘age before selecting text genres. There
are some text genres that suitable to be used with children and other with adults.
 Proficiency
Observing the proficiency of our students will help us determine what text genre is
more appropriated to be selected.

Knowing the group

It is important for the teachers to know their students well before selecting the
appropriate text genre to be used in the classroom.

What is the importance of working with text genres in the EFL classroom?

Working with text genre is relevant for the EFL classroom/students because they
may transform their way of facing everyday life by positioning themselves as
human beings, writing in English in different contexts.

What is the importance of the context in selecting text genres for the EFL
classroom?

It is important for motivating students learning.

How can the choice of a non-adequate text genre influence the learning of
writing in the EFL classroom?

Students may feel unmotivated and it may affect student’s learning.